Edelman still not 100 percent fit: 'I don't have football legs'

Nearly a year after tearing his ACL, Julian Edelman is still working his way back into full health as the New England Patriots prepare for the season at training camp.

"I feel like I got to get my legs under me a lot more. I don't have my camp legs, I don't have football legs, and it's evident out there," Edelman said Friday after the team's eighth practice of training camp, according to ESPN's Mike Reiss.

Edelman has been participating fully at camp, which he described as a "grind." The pass-catcher won't need to push himself to be ready for Week 1, as he's set to serve a four-game ban for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing drug policy.

"You get tired, you create bad habits, you don't run your routes right and you get yelled at in meetings for it. I'm expecting to do that because I got to pick it up," Edelman said. "I wasn't as good as I want to be today and feeling that's because I'm not in the best shape right now."

With a receiving corps that's in flux after the losses of Brandin Cooks and Danny Amendola, the Patriots need Edelman to regain the form that helped him produce three 90-plus-catch seasons from 2013-16.